COLUMN: What's better for my health - Three meals or lots of little meals?

It’s widely taught that we should have three square meals per day, but the real question lies on whether this traditional way of eating or lots of little meals is better for our health.

Here nutritionist Laurann O’Reilly and owner of nutrition by Laurann explains how the timing of meals may work differently for each person depending on each of our needs but some of the key things that we should consider.

- Prioritise Meeting Your Nutritional Requirements: Our body requires a minimum amount of energy to function which is a combination of carbohydrates, lean protein and healthy fats (macronutrients) as well as vitamins and minerals (micronutrients). Whilst it’s possible for some people to have a wide variety of food in 3 meals alone, it may be easier and likely more realistic to have additional healthy snacks throughout the day to meet these requirements.

- Energy Balance: Whether weight loss, gain or maintenance is your health goal, the key here is energy balance rather than meal frequency. If we consume less food energy than we require, we can achieve weight loss. If we establish an equilibrium (we consume the same amount of energy as we need), we can achieve weight maintenance and if we consume more energy than we need this results in weight gain. So, the key is achieving this balance either through three larger nutritious meals or spread throughout the day in smaller meals.

- Blood Sugar Balance: Many people struggle to maintain healthy blood sugar levels and end up ‘crashing and craving’ resulting in a blood sugar rollercoaster effect.

Tip 1: Having smaller healthy and nutritious meals can often help to prevent the crash and crave or midday energy slump.
Tip 2: Including good sources of fibre in your diet can also help to stabilise blood sugar levels. These include brown or wholegrain breads, cereals, rice and pasta (over white versions) as well as porridge, chia and flaxseed.

- Supporting Your Body: Again, rather than focusing on 3 exact meals, sometimes life can be busy and often challenging. During these times it’s important to ensure that we opt for regular nutritious meals to support us.

Tip: During these times our stress hormones can cause us to crave foods which are high in fat and sugar, so having regular healthy prepared snacks such as mixed chopped or whole fruit (containing natural sugars and fibre) or wholegrain crackers with a portion of cheese (30g or two thumbs) can help to meet these needs.

- Physical Activity Levels: Whilst three main meals may suit those with low to moderate physical activity levels. For getting the most out of higher intensity workouts, the timing of food plays a major role as it provides us with the fuel we need as well as enhancing our performance, endurance and recovery, so a pre and post workout snack may be required.

- Allow Some Breaks Between Meals: Whilst it may sound like we need to be crazing all day long, this isn’t necessarily the case. If you prefer to have smaller meals, think of them as a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack in between your meals, whilst leaving breaks in between for your body to digest. It’s also better for your teeth to have a break from eating to allow your mouth’s natural healing process to occur.

- Avoid Heavy Meals Before Bedtime: Whilst many people end up eating very little all day and then compensating by eating huge meals and snacks in the evening time, this can have a negative effect on the body. Firstly, we require and will burn more energy being active throughout the day. Secondly our body is also meant to go into a state of starvation whilst we sleep, that’s why we can have breakfast ‘break – fast’. We’re meant to repair and not digest whilst we sleep – keep in mind we’re also going against gravity lying down, which also affects our ability to digest our food properly.

Tip: If you get peckish in the evening opt for a small easy to digest snack such as a yogurt instead.

- Follow Your Hunger Cues: For those who read my article about ‘learning to enjoy your food’, I spoke about mindful eating. In a nutshell this involves eating without distraction (such as phones, laptops or TV) whilst learning to savour your food. This not only helps you learn how to detect when you’re hungry but also to know when you’re full (satiety), let’s call it intuitive eating.

- The Benefit of Routine: At the end of the day, the most important thing is to ensure that you achieve a good balanced diet which meets your needs. If you can only fit in 3 meals due to having a busy lifestyle or if you can manage to squeeze in your snacks, it’s important to remember that your body loves routine. So where possible, it’s best to attempt to eat your main meals at the same time most days, that way your body will intuitively know when it’s time to eat.